MPs from both sides back euthanasia reform

A Senate report may have opened the door to a free vote on voluntary euthanasia.

Parliamentarians from both sides of politics declared their support for voluntary euthanasia on Tuesday, following a Senate report that could pave the way for a free vote on national right-to-die laws.

Labor's deputy leader Tanya Plibersek and former Howard government minister Mal Brough were among MPs to add their voices to calls for dying with dignity reform.

Their comments follow the release of a multi-party Senate committee report on Monday that recommended party leaders allow MPs a free vote on euthanasia.

The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, whose six members included three coalition Senators, recommended a conscience vote following an inquiry on the first proposals for national euthanasia laws, put forward by Greens senator Richard di Natale.

Senator di Natale's draft bill would make it legal for medical practitioners to help a terminally ill, mentally competent adult end their life.

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Federal Parliament has been asked to consider the issue of euthanasia just once before. In 1996, it voted for a private member's bill introduced by Liberal frontbencher Kevin Andrews to overturn Northern Territory laws that legalised euthanasia. On that occasion, both major parties granted their MPs a free vote.

Whether coalition MPs would be granted a conscience vote on national dying-with-dignity laws remains to be seen.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott, in China attending the APEC summit, was not available to comment on the approach the Coalition would take to such a bill.

A spokeswoman for Justice Minister Michael Keenan said:

"There is currently no legislation before the parliament on this matter. Should there be legislation presented in the future, it will be dealt with by the party room in the usual way."

Nationals Senator John Williams said while heopposed euthanasia, he supported a free vote.

"This is a contentious issue, a sensitive issue and a religious issue," he told Fairfax Media. "I personally would not support it, but I have no problem with a conscience vote."

Labor MPs automatically have a conscience vote on euthanasia.

Labor's deputy leader Tanya Plibersek said "I support voluntary euthanasia with appropriate regulation and safeguards," a view reinforced by her experience of watching her father Joseph die slowly and painfully from cancer in 2012.

Liberal MP Mal Brough, who voted against the Andrews bill in 1996, said while he had not seen the Di Natale bill, "I support the notion of dying with dignity."

A spokesman for the leader of the house, Christopher Pyne, said he did not believe euthanasia should be legal.

Nationals Senator Barry O'Sullivan, a member of the Senate committee that examined the Di Natale bill, said he was "seriously opposed" to euthanasia because he believed the state should not involve itself in matters of life and death.

"Once you legislate for voluntary euthanasia on certain terms, over time it stands to reason that these terms can be expanded or broadened. I think we should stay right out of the space," he said.

Liberal Democratic Party senator David Leyonhjelm said his party supported euthanasia for people of sound mind as long as their choice was totally voluntary.

"We take the view that if suicide is legal – and it is, and so it should be – it's not moral to deny people assistance to commit suicide just because they're too feeble to do it for themselves," he said.

"We just don't think the government has the right to tell you that you have to stay alive if you are determined not to stay alive. It's not the government's business," Senator Leyonhjelm said.

Senator di Natale will consider issues raised by the committee with a view to introducing an improved bill, co-sponsored by MPs from other parties, in the first half of 2015.

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